Thursday, April 12, 2012

Identity crisis: H’ng showing his Mykad during the press conference organised by Chong (second from left).

A 65-year-old hawker, who has never been outside the country, is in a fix after the National Registration Department (NRD) clai-med that he had renounced his citizenship and is now a Singaporean.

H’ng Yu Choon, from Penang found that the NRD did not recognise him as a Malaysian anymore when his application for the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) last year was rejected due a problem with his MyKad.

He went to the NRD in Penang to renew his MyKad last month and was told by an officer that their records showed he had migrated to Singapore recently and had opted to be a citizen of the island republic.

“I do not even have a passport, but according to the records, I renewed my international passport five times,” H’ng told reporters at the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department yesterday.

H’ng said he was a victim of a pickpocket some 30 years ago and had lost all his important documents in the incident.

He lodged a police report then and had his identity card replaced.

H’ng also changed his identity card to a MyKad when the new system was introduced.

Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said it could be a case of stolen identity or a technical glitch with the NRD.

“If it is a technical problem, H’ng is now stateless due to this case of two different people with the same name and IC number.

“I will be filing a report to the Singapore High Commissioner and we hope that H’ng from Singapore will come forward to assist the NRD in clarifying the matter,” he said, adding that he would also be lodging a police report if it was a case of identity theft.